The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

Each week at Forbes we scan our database of corporate insiders to see who got richer from the action in the stock market. Despite the record profits being reported by major U.S. financial institutions such as Wells Fargo, earnings season has not been kind to those invested in equities. On Friday all three major indices were down over the week prior, lead by the NASDAQ, which recorded a loss in excess of 3%. It appears that pervasive uncertainty about the future of American and European fiscal policy has frozen capital and corporations alike. American companies seem content to sit on piles of cash, hesitant to make any major moves until the political dust settles here in the United States. Equally wary, investors have been unable to sustain a real rally, with the summer's run simply a product of anticipated money supply hijinks by Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve. Yet despite the malaise, some insiders claimed victories this week. Here, some of the biggest winners from the past seven days:

Nooks Not Books

When we last saw Leonard Riggio, founder and Chairman of Barnes & Noble, Microsoft had just announced a $300 million investment in an e-book and e-reader marketing joint venture with the book retailer. The cash injection, which amounted to roughly half of Barnes & Nobles market capitalization at the time of the announcement, sent shares soaring more than 80%, ultimately netting Riggio a 31% gain on the week. Briefly, Riggio's nearly 17 million shares in the outfit were worth more than $300 million. Then began a steady descent back to reality as the unprofitable company's shares fell from a high north of $20 to about $11. The stock price retreated for the same reason that Barnes & Noble does not make money; Barnes & Noble is not only a brick and mortar retailer, but it is a brick and mortar retailer that sells books. These two dead technologies have proved to be substantial obstacles for the firm in its fight to generate profits, but as the deal with Microsoft evidenced, they are committed to reworking their business model to succeed in the new environment. What's more, the strategy is showing signs of working. When the company reported on Wednesday that e-book and e-reader sales were up 30% over last year and that pre-orders for the new line of Nook e-readers were up 240% over past versions of the device, shares jumped. On Friday the stock was up 20.1% over a week earlier. Riggio's shares were worth $276 million, $49 million more than they were worth last Friday.

Wisdom Wealth

ETFs are truly the best of both worlds. Delivering the liquidity of stocks and the diversification of mutual funds, they are hard to beat products for novice retail investors, and even for experienced ones. Whenever someone asks me where to put their money I always suggest an index ETF. IShares' S&P 500 Index ETF goes as the U.S. stock market does, which historically has been up, and currently offers a tidy 2% yield. Should you require a little more yield, or easy exposure to currencies, international equities or alternatives, take a look at WisdomTree Investment's portfolio of 49 unique ETFs. The young firm, which launched its first ETF in 2006, is the only publicly traded asset manager that exclusively offers ETFs. WisdomTree's Equity Income Fund sports a yield of just under 4% and since the beginning of the year has enjoyed decent capital appreciation of just under 10%. Michael Steinhardt, the co-founder of Birthright Israel and a Wharton grad, is the largest individual owner of WisdomTree shares, holding more than 25% of the company. After Goldman Sachs upgraded WisdomTree shares to a buy rating last Friday, shares popped. The stock continued to climb over the week, and was up 12.4% on Friday. As such, Steinhardt's 30.8 million shares are now worth $220.1 million after a gain of $24.3 million.

Really Real-Time Rich

A flat day on Wall Street on Friday didn't stop several of the 50 billionaires whose wealth Forbes tracks in real time from recording hundreds of millions of dollars in paper gains. Leading the way was Oracle founder Larry Ellison. A gain of less than 1% in Oracle's stock price resulted in a $292.78 million day for the world's richest sailor. In percentage terms, Michael Dell took the day, as Dell shares climbed 3.64% after the computer hardware shop made several Windows 8 devices available for pre-order. Not all billionaires fared so well in Friday's session, however. The number one loser on Friday was Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett. Though Berkshire's stock fell just .46%, the Oracle of Omaha's net worth declined by $212.8 million. But Buffett couldn't keep pace with co-founder Reid Hoffman, who lead the pack with the largest percentage loss of all 50 real-time billionaires. Shares fell 2.95%, despite getting an upgrade from .

Reflects changes from the market open on Friday October 5 through the open on Friday October 12, 2012.

Thanks to Scott DeCarlo for building and maintaining our insider database screen.